Stumbling Stones 6 Rue de Barr

These small, brass, memorial plaques (Stolpersteine or "pavés de mémoire" or "pierres d’achoppement") were installed on 01 May 2019 and were among the first 20 Stolpersteine in Strasbourg. They commemorate:

* Nathan Schenkel, born 1896, refugee in La Bachellerie, shot 1 April 1944, Azerat Cemetery.
* Esther Schenkel née Zilberman, born 1898, interned at Drancy, deported 1944, Auschwitz, murdered 16 April 1944.
* Cecile Schenkel, born 1930, interned at Drancy, deported 1944, Auschwitz, murdered 16 April 1944.
* Isaac Schenkel, born 1932, interned at Drancy, deported 1944, Auschwitz, murdered 16 April 1944.
* Jacques Schenkel, born 1934, interned at Drancy, deported 1944, Auschwitz, murdered 16 April 1944.
* Maurice Schenkel, born 1935, interned at Drancy, deported 1944, Auschwitz, murdered 16 April 1944.
* Alfred Schenkel, born 1937, interned at Drancy, deported 1944, Auschwitz, murdered 16 April 1944.

Background

Nathan Schenkel, a merchant, married Esther Zilberman. Both had been born in Poland; both had become French citizens. Little is known about their lives. By 1930, when their oldest child was born, they were in Strasbourg, and were there when their youngest was born in 1937.

In the spring of 1944, they were apparently in La Bachellerie village, in the so-called free zone of Dordogne. On 30 March 1944, a Nazi detachment arrived in La Bachellerie with lists identifying supposed communists, English nationals, persons suspected of helping the enemy, and Jews. The police selected 14 men and 2 boys for arrest and execution. Nathan Schenkel was shot dead on 01 April at Azerat Cemetery, 4 km from La Bachellerie. All other Jews, including Nathan’s wife and children, were transferred to the Drancy Transit Camp and then deported onward in cattle cars in Transport 71 to Auschwitz, arriving 16 April. Of the 1,499 deportees on Transport 71, 165 men and 91 women were selected for slave labor; everyone else was sent immediately to the gas chambers.

"Stolpersteine" is an art project for Europe by Gunter Demnig to commemorate victims of National Socialism (Nazism). Stolpersteine (stumbling stones) are small, 10x10cm brass plaques placed in the pavement in front of the last voluntary residence of (mostly Jewish) victims who were murdered by the Nazis. Each plaque is engraved with the victim’s name, date of birth, and place (mostly a concentration camp) and date of death. By doing this, Gunter Demnig gives an individual memorial to each victim. One stone, one name, one person. He cites the Talmud: "A human being is forgotten only when his or her name is forgotten."

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Source

• Text: Anne Palmer
• Photos: Cendrars83
• Yad Vashem Central Database of Shoah Victims’ Names
• Le Maitron: Dictionnnaire Bibliographique, Nathan Schenkel
• Alsace TV: photographs of the Schenkel family
• Stolpersteine.eu